Messages - bonedaddy.p7

So I've been holding out for a 70D or 7D2 for over a year now and have finally hit my limit on patience. I have 2 camping trips later this year and a trip to the NYC area next week and really would love a new body for them. Now, I'm looking at things a bit unconventionally; Fuji X-E1 or a used 7D body. I'm wanting a smaller body at some point for day-to-day shooting, but I will also be needing a more professional body for when I want to be more serious about what I'm doing, so each fills their respective needs. No switching; I have too much glass for me to leave Canon altogether, but I do want that second, smaller body too.

Note that this is only a serious hobby, I do not, nor do I intend to make money with either body.

so...since I am short on time and can only afford one at the moment, do I buy the X-E1 for my casual shooting (which I do less of and will only have kit glass for), or do I get the 7D body that I'll end up trading at a loss in a year (or 5 at the rate Canon is going)? opinions?

their h.264 pro recorder works very well and over USB 2, and their ATEM switcher is nice too. The only real downside I see is that you have to capture with their software and then move the file to your editor.

I have been using the Matrox Mojito Max and the Blackmagic decklink cards with good results for desktops, and I have the ATEM sitting on my desk right now and have liked it. we fight over the h.264 pro recorder a bit here because it works with everything and is trouble free.

What auto-focus settings are you using? I've been shooting with single-point expanded, mostly on one shot.

I use AI Servo with Back button control and center focus point only for the shots in question. (T2i) (Press and release focus button and it works the same as one-shot - for anyone unfamiliar with back button focus modes.)

You are correct that the haze does make all the images a little soft and reduces contrast, but in the pictures from the back, it is very obvious, even without pixel peeping, that the focus is way off. The audio mix position (about 1/3 back into the room is sharper than anything on the stage, and from the audience silhouettes, it appears that the focal plane was about one row in front of the mix position. These were some of the very few pictures I took with my 50 1.8. I have never taken pictures at that distance with that lens before, but thought I would try it since it framed the stage well and gave a good indication of the crowd size, as well as providing a fairly shallow depth of field that would have looked great had the focus actually been on the stage.

"mix position" is called Front of house, or FOH. The "Haze" you are referring to is from a fogger, this isn't just water mist though, it's a chemical mix that is slightly opaque to create that "beam" effect with the lights, so it's not as simple as filtering because the fog itself is not transparent. Filters can help, but there's only so far you'll get before the filter cuts the light enough to cause problems. Basically think of it as heavy cigarette smoke. Note that if you put your hand in front of the nozzle of a fogger when it's spraying, your hand will feel quite strange and tingly due to the chemicals, and the stuff I'm used to smells much like a damp wool coat too.

I ran sound and lights at underground events for around a decade and after everything got up and running I'd run around with my cameras to practice. I quickly gave up on auto focus because all the auto focus shots simply never managed to pick the right subject due to the fog. I ended up preferring my AE-1 Program over the Rebel II because of this, and digital was still pretty junky at the time (this was pre-5Dmk1 days). I can't vouch for modern AF since I don't have anything capable of getting focus at events, but this might explain what you're running into.

I'm interested in something like this for small flip-cam type shots where I'd want a flip screen..but how far does the screen pivot? tripod mount? I guess I could stop being lazy and look it up, but for the money I'm hearing for this ($299) I could just buy a camcorder. I don't think I'd ever use a camera that doesn't have a dedicated shutter button outside of my phone.

edit: the screen only tilts 90 degrees...so it'd be useless as a youtube cam for when you want to film yourself. stopped reading after that.

I love those specs; I'd jump to buy one immediately if it's under 2100 for the body. Sadly I have to agree that 1: we may not see a 7DII this year (though I am still holding out) and 2: those specs seem a little wish-list like for under $2k

I typically like the old FD lenses, but they have different optical qualities than most modern lenses. They can be subjective on whether you like them or not(just like all old lenses). there are tons of cheap adapters on the market but the tolerances can be a bit tighter on these lenses than the adapters account for, the EdMika ones are the only ones I've seen that have adequate quality control for them to make the lens usable at both ends of focus. I don't remember off the top of my head but it has something to do with how thin they need to be or something. There's even an article on them here on CR: http://www.canonrumors.com/tech-articles/fd-fl-lenses-on-your-ef-body/

I'm waiting on my first m42 lens to come from halfway around the world right now, my adapter research pretty much points out what the others have said, except I was pointed to the optix AF confirm chip as it offers some additional features like focus trap, focus adjust, program ability for aperature and the ability to be setup for 3 lenses. do an ebay search for optix v6 and you'll find several results. I'll try to remember to post back here after I've played with a few adapters.

I acknowledge that they offered to fix the problem if it exists. But its obvious why one does not want their 'brand new camera' fixed. And they will have to convince any buyers down the road of their reason. But its a cop out by Canon. This is a design flaw, they should have replaced every single affected camera, or given users some kind of rebate for continuing to own a 'defective product'. I have a better word that describes this: "kyosei". (Japanese for F%$# every last cent from your most loyal customers).

seriously, get a grip. This is in no way a cop-out, do you have any idea what this fix will cost Canon? Do you have any idea what it means to be an early adopter? yes, you get to play with the newest, shiniest toys but you also have to deal with the potential design quirks that are still being ironed out and limited compatibility until other manufacturers/developers catch up and integrate. This is the same reason I don't buy a car the first year it comes out; they always have small glitches to iron out, buying one used is not too big of a deal, provided the owner took them in for all the required work. As an engineer that designs products, I can attest to the fact that no amount of testing will provide a perfect product; there will always be some odd ball situation that someone will come up with (Like shooting with the lens cap on) and complain about it. I've had a user complain that my product doesn't work if you unplug it. well, guess what? neither does your tv, toaster, microwave, etc.. If I buy a piece of electronics and they come out with a new board revision for a component inside of it, they're not going to offer you the new version if there's nothing wrong. At best, you can get yours modified. The only real way you will get a replacement is if it is a safety hazard (exploding batteries, under rated power supplies, etc)

So let's pose this question: what do YOU want Canon to do? replace your camera? refund your money? write you a check for the $200 you probably won't lose?

Guess what, it probably costs canon more money to apply this fix than you could potentially lose on resale. I think Canon has done more than enough and has earned more respect from me due to the incident.

in summary: you're an early adopter who is unhappy that you found out what it means to be an early adopter. Great, get your camera fixed and it will be indistinguishable to a serial 3+ camera, then use it. if you're worried about resale, go get a niche camera that depreciates slower (Leica, medium format, etc...)

Seriously, people - if you can't do this with your 7D, it ain't the camera...

They're noisy and soft, even at screen resolution. Seriously dude, if you can't see that, the problem's not the camera...

I wouldn't go that far, they're usable shots and are salvageable but these are all shots that are in moderately decent lighting. I'm often at events that have virtually no lighting save for a camp fire 200 feet away and a small black light over the performer in a venue over a mile from the nearest building. And I'm trying to take photos of people in the crowd. This is an extreme situation but one that I run into a few times a year. There is nothing really wrong with the current generation of sensor, but there is equally as much not wrong with wishing for improvements.

not really interested, unless they come up with a sensor that has much better high ISO performance...

8fps & AF-system of my current 7D satisfies my needs completely

Ditto. The ISO performance on the current 7D is my only real complaint. But it would also be nice to get the Auto ISO upper limit feature of the 60D. Wouldn't want to see an upgraded 7D be physically bigger or heavier. The 60D feels more comfortable in my hand than the 7D but I picked up a used 7D because of the better AF and the AFMA feature. I never had a use for the swivel LCD screen of the 60D - maybe because I don't do street or concert photography.

why on earth would you need a swivel LCD for concerts?

it all depends upon where you are in the venue. I have shot many concerts and club events where I was able to get on the stage or climb on the speakers(don't do this as you'll upset the sound guys; luckily for me, I was the sound guy). Having a swivel screen would let you crouch out of the way, holding the camera high or low to get angles that would not otherwise be possible without lots of guesswork. Being on stage you have to maintain a small footprint as to stay out of the way, so for some more creative shots the swivel would be super handy. I can see a swivel LCD being useful for many types of photography; it lets you keep off the ground when shooting outdoors, get good angles when shooting in confined spaces, for video guys it helps with shoulder-rail systems if you don't want to use an external monitor, lets you remain somewhat incognito for street, and I would love to use it for some restoration/construction documentation that I do from time to time where I have enough room to fit a camera with a small lens but not my head (Yes, I could use a P&S for some of the shots, but I don't own a modern P&S).

Reduce noise (not that it's bad right now) and improve DR and you have me sold unless it's over 2200USD. If these are the only changes I'll probably pick up the current 7D or wait for the 70D unless it comes in at a similar price to the current model. I don't need any more MP, an improved focusing system- YES, please; that and the poor ISO performance of my XTi are the only real complaints I have. I don't have a need for 10fps, though I wouldn't complain about it. if they can figure out an adequately rugged swivel screen assembly I might even go higher on my price.

It really depends upon the subject and the time constraints of the shotif I have time to compose or if I really want to tweak the exposure: Mif I am just shooting normally: AVif I need to prattle off a bunch of shots quickly and they are all different: P

I use M probably 60-70%, AV 30% and P maybe 10% of the time

oh yeah, I've never had a camera with auto ISO so I have no idea how often I would use it...it would probably replace all my P mode and some of my AV mode.

And MF sensors are decade old technology. Imagine if they have similar tech to modern FF CMOS sensors. They would have 18 stop DR and usable 1million ISO.

That would be a sight to behold!

But why on earth would a $20k digital back use such outdated tech. You would think they would improve it over the years? I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just really curious as to why! If such a sensor existed, even I would buy one. I would take out a loan if I had to. So if that is true that they could have advanced MF tech but didn't, that seems like the biggest marketing oops of all time, no? They don't want to expand the tiny MF market into something resembling the 1dx/D4 market, which I assume is many times bigger?

For what it's worth, CMOS and CCD are practically the same age (1967 vs 1969). CMOS is also a bit more appropriate for pixel-based output in my opinion. Keep in mind, many OLD digital cameras used CCD and have since switched to CMOS. There must be some logical reason for that. Many modern video cameras use CMOS now as opposed to CCD (ah..the days where I would dream about having a 3CCD camera). Cost is a factor in this, but so is complexity of design. I believe many MF backs would still be based on CCD because it would be insanely difficult to manufacture a CMOS sensor at those sizes (I'm sill impressed that we manage to make so many FF CMOS sensors).